This healthy apple dessert recipe is also gluten free, grain free, refined sugar free, and GAPS diet friendly. Fresh apples, cozy spices, and a simple topping make an easy fall dessert!
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Do you like apple desserts or pumpkin desserts best in the fall?
I can’t decide, so I make both!
While apple pie is a classic favorite, and apple crisp is very popular and a little simpler to make, there is another easy fall apple dessert option. Apple cobbler!
This recipe might be called apple cobbler or apple cake. It is kind of both, and neither. It is very simple, and delicious, and fall-like. You could enjoy it any time of year!
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Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, or Pie?
Sometimes the distinctions are a bit murky!
Pie
You know what pie is– there are typically two pastry crusts, ideally flaky and not too thick, one on the bottom and one on top. Sometimes the top of the pie might be something else, like a lattice made of pastry or a topping resembling a crisp or a crumble. Some pies, like pumpkin or chocolate, have no top crust.
Crisp and crumble
This may be a distinction without much difference! Neither have a bottom crust. Both have a topping made of butter, sugar, and something substantial to hold it all together that could include flour, oats, nuts, etc. Crisp might be a bit crunchier, and crumble a bit finer. Crumbles may not contain any oats, while crisps often do– but these don’t seem to be firm rules. Or important ones…
Cobbler
Cobbler has a topping that is either a biscuit dough or a cake-like batter. It usually doesn’t have a bottom biscuit layer, just fruit on the bottom and then the topping. Historically, that wasn’t always true– cobblers could have a lower and an upper layer with fruit in between, but not pie crust or crumble or crisp topping.
You may have heard of betty and buckle, and apparently there are similar desserts called slumps, grunts, and sonkers. You may have doubts about serving dishes with such names, but here they are!
How to Make a Gluten Free Apple Dessert
The first thing to do is to peel, core, and slice or chop your apples. Because the topping will not require much time to cook, I like to start the cooking process on the stove top while making the topping.
Toss the apples with some cinnamon and nutmeg, and maybe a little lemon juice to preserve the color of the apples and add depth to the flavor. Melt some butter, ideally in a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven, add the apple mixture, and cover so the apples start to cook. You can sweeten the apples if you like, but I usually don’t.
While the apples are cooking
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Mix all the topping ingredients together until smooth. You can sweeten the topping or not– no sweetening would be more similar to a biscuit, and sweetening it will be more like cake.
If the batter seems alarmingly thin at first, never fear! Coconut flour is intensely absorbent (that is why we need so little of it) and the batter will thicken up considerably after a minute or two.
Continue cooking the apples until they are softened. If they aren’t completely cooked, that is fine, as they will cook more in the oven. Stir them occcasionally so they cook evenly. If juices start to build up, keep the lid off and allow the excess liquid to boil off
If you are cooking the apples in an oven-safe pan, you can just spread the topping right over the hot apples. If not, then remove the apples to a suitably sized baking dish and then top them with the cobbler batter.
You can either spread the topping evenly over the top, like this:
or drop it by spoonfuls so the apples peek through in between, like this:
If you like, sprinkle with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar.
Bake the apple cobbler at 375°F for 15-20 minutes. The topping should be cooked through, and the apple filling bubbling around the edges. Cool a little before scooping the apple dessert into serving dishes. It is best served warm. You might enjoy topping with whipped cream, cultured cream, or ice cream, such as my GAPS friendly vanilla ice cream.
Is this gluten free apple dessert GAPS compliant?
Like many of my recipes, it can be! Technically, to be GAPS friendly, you should grind the coconut into flour just before you make the cobbler. I don’t do that, but freshly ground coconut flour is the correct GAPS way.
Other than that, this recipe is GAPS compliant as written. In fact, if you are using lots of egg yolks on the GAPS diet, this recipe is a good use of those extra egg whites that pile up!
Gluten Free Apple Cobbler
Ingredients
- 3 lbs apples
- 2 T grass fed butter or other fat
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- juice of 1/2 lemon optional
- 1/2 C coconut flour
- 1/2 C grass fed butter, melted or very soft
- 6 egg whites OR 3 whole eggs
- 3 T honey
- 1 tsp vanilla OR vanilla paste, powder, or seeds
- 1 tsp baking soda
- dash salt (larger dash if using unsalted butter)
Instructions
- Peel, core, and slice apples. Melt 2 T butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven (oven safe if you have one) and sauté apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice until softened, about 10 minutes. The apples don't need to be fully cooked yet.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. While the apples are cooking, mix all topping ingredients in a bowl. Stir the apples from time to time. If juices start to accumulate, remove the cover and leave it off to let the excess liquid boil away.
- If you are cooking the apples in a cast iron skillet, you can pour the topping directly over them to bake. If not, move the apples to a baking dish such as an 8" square pan or whatever size holds the apples comfortably before adding the topping.
- Smooth the topping mixture over the apples and bake 15-20 minutes at 375°F or until the topping is done and the apples are bubbling around the edges. (Alternatively, drop it by spoonfuls over the apples and don't smooth it out.)
- Cool a few minutes. Serve warm either plain or with whipped cream, cultured cream, or ice cream.
Make this Gluten Free Apple Dessert Your Way!
As simple as this recipe is, there are some tweaks you could make. For example, you could:
- sweeten the apples– I don’t because I like them unsweetened and we try to keep our sugar (even honey!) low, but if I make this for company I sweeten with a couple tablespoons of honey. People are used to sweeter desserts.
- use more or less of the spices, or use different ones– cloves, ginger, or cardamom, for example.
- as noted in the recipe, you can drop the batter over the fruit by spoonfuls or just spread it out. Whichever seems easier to you…
- try other fruits– pears, peaches, berries, cherries, plums, anything you think sounds good! Softer fruits will need less cooking time before they go in the oven– maybe none at all!
- if you aren’t on the GAPS diet, you could use other more natural sweeteners, like maple syrup or coconut sugar, or white sugar, brown sugar, or a sugar substitute that you like in baked goods.
- use coconut oil or another fat in place of butter to make it dairy free. Top with coconut whipped cream or allowed ice cream.
Want apple crisp this time? Try my gluten free, grain free apple crisp recipe.
For something a bit different, pear crisp is also a delectable fall dessert!
